During a rambling and lie-filled rally Thursday night in Grand Rapids, Michigan, President Donald Trump mocked asylum-seekers fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries, suggesting they are not actually afraid for their lives.
“You have people coming up. You know they’re all met by the lawyers,” Trump said. “And they come out, they’re all met by the lawyers, and they say, ‘Say the following phrase: I am very afraid for my life. I am afraid for my life.'”
“And then I look at the guy. He looks like he just got out of the ring. He’s the heavyweight champion of the world,” the president said to laughter from the crowd. “He’s afraid for his life. It’s a big fat con job, folks.”
Trump’s remarks came amid outrage over migrant treatment in El Paso, Texas, where hundreds of people — including many women and young children — are being detained in what some described as “concentration camps.”
Trump mocks immigration lawyers and asylum seekers pic.twitter.com/ekYhGcFLpa
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 29, 2019
Critics were appalled — though not surprised — by Trump’s mockery of asylum-seekers, condemning the president’s comments as “evil,” “cruel,” and “sickening.”
One observer pointed to reporting showing that many asylum-seekers who have been turned away at the border have been killed or severely persecuted upon returning to their home countries.
“Literally the single most powerful person on the planet mocking some of the most vulnerable people on the planet,” tweeted Daniel Balson, Europe and Central Asia advocacy director at Amnesty International.
This stuff always plays in the press like bad manners or a confounding lapse of Presidential decorum but he’s the actual literal boss of the actual literal goons hunting people down and throwing them into prison camps right now https://t.co/Yvm5I51IJC
— Tom Scocca (@tomscocca) March 29, 2019
Genuinely one of the worst human beings in the history of US public life. https://t.co/8uA1V6rUoI
— David Roberts (@drvox) March 29, 2019
“Big fat con job”? Sounds like Trump just found his new campaign slogan.
The con ends in 2020. Americans deserve so so so much better. #NotMeUs https://t.co/zRhrCXmun9
— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) March 29, 2019
Trump also used his Michigan rally to launch an insult-laced tirade against Democratic lawmakers — such as “little pencil-necked Adam Schiff” — and lie about the findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, which have not yet been released to the public.
As Vox’s Aaron Rupar pointed out, it took the president just 90 seconds to lie about the Mueller report.
According to the summary of the two-year probe’s conclusions by Attorney General William Barr, Mueller did not exonerate Trump of obstruction of justice.
Addressing his fans in Michigan Thursday night, Trump asserted that the report did precisely that.
“The special counsel completed its report and found no collusion and no obstruction,” the president said.
Watch:
We’re one minute in and Trump has already blatantly lied about the Mueller report. (Mueller did not exonerate him of obstruction.) pic.twitter.com/AnFvt8KQuY
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 28, 2019
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy